The principles of the present invention are directed generally to wireless communication devices and, more particularly, to disposable wireless messaging devices, computer systems that incorporate disposable wireless messaging devices, and methods of operating the same.
The demand for better and cheaper wireless messaging services and equipment continues to grow at a rapid pace. Much of this growth is due to the increase of service types coupled with a decrease in service costs, with users typically renting or buying pagers for use over an extended period of time. However, as costs decrease and services increase, there are increasing demands for messaging services provided for short time durations (i.e., temporary messaging services).
For instance, the day-surgery facilities of hospitals in larger urban areas sometimes provide pagers for temporary use by a patient""s family member or friend. This service provides the patient""s representative with the freedom to leave the medical facility without the need for continually calling to determine the status of the patient or to determine the exact time for patient pick-up. It can also relieve the patient of concern for undue disruption of their relative""s or friend""s daily routine and some anxiety associated with getting out of the hospital as soon as possible. Besides providing a feeling of good-will toward the hospital, this service also provides more time for hospital staff to actually serve the patient by decreasing the amount of pressure from waiting family or friends.
In a similar manner, hospitals may provide pagers for temporary use by the husbands of expectant women who otherwise do not require paging services. In these cases, a mother-to-be can page her husband when she is unable to reach him by telephone. If text messaging services are available, she may provide more detailed messages, such as xe2x80x9cMeet me at the hospital, now!xe2x80x9d
The increased demand for temporary wireless messaging services also creates a need for lower cost pagers to provide these services. Presently, hospitals and other businesses, such as automotive repair shops, may loan or rent pagers to customers. Invariably, providing this type of customer convenience eventually results in increased costs as pagers are lost, damaged, or otherwise not returned to the provider. Furthermore, it may be hard to predict the maximum number of pagers, including back-ups, which must be available for providing the same level of paging service to all potential users.
Improvements in paging services and lower costs allow users to develop new uses for these services, especially temporary uses. For instance, a parent may want to give a two-way pager to a child for a football trip. This would provide the student with an economical means for contacting the parent if a transportation emergency or other type of emergency occurs.
Temporary wireless messaging devices also allows an organization, such as a trade union, to rapidly poll its members during, for example, contract negotiations. If inexpensive, limited capability wireless messaging devices are available, the union can distribute disposable wireless messaging devices to its membership for more or less instantaneous voting. Once negotiations are complete, the union can subsequently transfer a universal disabling message to all distributed wireless messaging devices, thereby disabling the devices and preventing further service charges.
Therefore, there exists a need in the art for an improved wireless communication system that minimizes the equipment costs associated with individual pagers or other types of wireless messaging devices. In particular, there is a need for a low-cost, disposable wireless messaging device that can be used for a short-duration of time or a limited number of transactions.
To address the above-discussed deficiencies of the prior art, an object of the teachings of the present invention is to provide a disposable wireless messaging device comprising: 1) a receiver capable of receiving signals wirelessly; 2) a messaging controller coupled to the receiver capable of extracting wireless messages from the wirelessly received signals and communicating the wireless messages to a user, wherein the messaging controller is further capable of (i) monitoring use of the disposable wireless messaging device in relation to a utilization threshold, and (ii) inhibiting, in response thereto, the operation of at least a portion of the messaging controller; and 3) a housing that is at least substantially rigid and that is capable of enveloping at least a portion of the messaging controller and the receiver.
According to one embodiment of the present invention, the messaging controller is further capable of controlling power consumption of the disposable wireless messaging device.
According to another embodiment of the present invention, the disposable wireless messaging device further comprises a power supply for supplying power to the disposable wireless messaging device.
According to still another embodiment of the present invention, the messaging controller inhibits the operation by controlling the power supply.
According to yet another embodiment of the present invention, the disposable wireless messaging device further comprises a power controller that is capable of increasing a voltage from a power supply to the messaging controller in response to a triggering event.
According to a further embodiment of the present invention, the disposable wireless messaging device further comprises means, having an output signal corresponding to the triggering event, for selectively enabling the power controller.
According to a still further embodiment of the present invention, the messaging controller is further capable, in response to the power supply voltage being initially increased to the messaging controller, of performing diagnostics on at least a portion of the disposable wireless messaging device.
According to a yet further embodiment of the present invention, the messaging controller is further capable, in response to the diagnostics completion, of inhibiting the selectively enabling means.
In one embodiment of the present invention, the messaging controller is further capable, in response to the power supply voltage being increased to the messaging controller, of inhibiting the selectively enabling means upon one of an undesirable comparison among the monitored use and the utilization threshold and an expiration of a time period.
In another embodiment of the present invention, the disposable wireless messaging device further comprises means, associated with the messaging controller, for communicating the wireless messages to a user.
In still another embodiment of the present invention, the disposable wireless messaging device further comprises a transmitter that is associated with the housing and the messaging controller, and that is capable of transmitting signals wirelessly.
In yet another embodiment of the present invention, the receiver and the transmitter are integrated into a transceiver that is capable of receiving and transmitting signals wirelessly.
In a further embodiment of the present invention, the messaging controller is responsive to a received control message to modify the monitored use of the disposable wireless messaging device as related to the utilization threshold.
In a still further embodiment of the present invention, the housing is adapted for association with a computer system.
In a yet further embodiment of the present invention, the messaging controller is capable of tracking a quantity of wireless messages extracted from the wirelessly received signals.
In another embodiment of the present invention, the messaging controller is capable of determining whether a particular wireless message is received more than once.
In still another embodiment of the present invention, the messaging controller is further capable of inhibiting operation of at least one of (i) the receiver, (ii) the messaging controller, and (iii) the power supply.
The foregoing has outlined rather broadly the features and technical advantages of the present invention so that those skilled in the art may better understand the detailed description of the invention that follows. Additional features and advantages of the invention will be described hereinafter that form the subject of the claims of the invention. Those skilled in the art should appreciate that they may readily use the conception and the specific embodiment disclosed as a basis for modifying or designing other structures for carrying out the same purposes of the present invention. Those skilled in the art should also realize that such equivalent constructions do not depart from the spirit and scope of the invention in its broadest form.
Before undertaking the DETAILED DESCRIPTION, it may be advantageous to set forth definitions of certain words and phrases used throughout this patent document: the terms xe2x80x9cincludexe2x80x9d and xe2x80x9ccomprise,xe2x80x9d as well as derivatives thereof, mean inclusion without limitation; the term xe2x80x9cor,xe2x80x9d is inclusive, meaning and/or; the phrases xe2x80x9cassociated withxe2x80x9d and xe2x80x9cassociated therewith,xe2x80x9d as well as derivatives thereof, may mean to include, be included within, interconnect with, contain, be contained within, connect to or with, couple to or with, be communicable with, cooperate with, interleave, juxtapose, be proximate to, be bound to or with, have, have a property of, or the like; and the term xe2x80x9ccontrollerxe2x80x9d means any device, system or part thereof that controls at least one operation, such a device may be implemented in hardware, firmware or software, or some combination of at least two of the same. It should be noted that the functionality associated with any particular controller may be centralized or distributed, whether locally or remotely. Definitions for certain words and phrases are provided throughout this patent document, those of ordinary skill in the art should understand that in many, if not most instances, such definitions apply to prior, as well as future uses of such defined words and phrases.